Quotable Country – 10/21/12 Edition

October 21, 2012 by C.M. Wilcox

Click the bullet after each quote to visit the source.

Because we decided to let technologists run the business instead of music running it, and it worked better for technology to sell singles, I’m not sure today’s artists are as iconic as they might have been. So we owe an apology to Taylor Swift. We’re losing the passion for the artist as an iconic figure when we’re losing the album. ●– – I have to agree with Garth Brooks on this one. The singles-driven digital marketplace is really hurting the Taylor Swifts of the world. Hope the poor girl’s at least managing to eke out a livable wage.

On the resulting album, Swift sounds less like the country-pop singer of Our Song and Mean and more like the young woman once obsessed with Dashboard Confessional who now runs with Selena Gomez and Hot Chelle Rae. ●– – Brian Mansfield on the new Taylor Swift album, Red.

He opened a show for me somewhere, and I remember someone telling me he was sitting on the stage hanging his feet over singing to the crowd. I thought to myself, ‘I’m not sure this is going to work out for the boy.’ Hah, what do I know? ●– – George Strait remembers an early encounter with Garth.

I think that that’s what every artist should do. I mean, there’s difference in what I do and what, say, I guess a mainstream artist would do. They’re in the mainstream, whatever that is. It’s different because I’m not trying to make hits. I want to make timeless little pieces of my own little personal art to share. And that’s about it. It ain’t special, and it ain’t any kind of monumental literature. But it’s something I want to share. ●– – Shelby Lynne on how she perceives her role as an indie artist.

The more obscure stuff was [artists like] Memphis Minnie, but then we’d listen to Hank Williams or Emmylou Harris. There’s a huge list of stuff, and then he literally put together a disk drive full of thousands of songs for me, all of which is “Rayna” music. Songs she would’ve listened to, songs that might have inspired her, songs that might have impacted the way her voice sounds. And then he would pull out his guitar and we would sing duets together. We would sing Hank Williams songs or Johnny Cash songs, and he’d sing harmonies. It’s truly been an immersion. ●– – “Nashville” star Connie Britton on getting a musical education from T-Bone Burnett.

And musically, it’s not over anybody’s head. It’s easy to sing along to, and it’s easy to understand. When you’re in your car and you’re driving from work back home, or vice versa, you don’t want to think too hard about what you’re listening to on the radio. You want to smile or have a moment when you go back to something in your life that you like to remember. I think with pop and rock these days the music gets away from that a little bit. ●– – Blake Shelton thinks country’s calling card is its accessibility.

Put it this way, I had a tour manager come out with me — in fact he’s my tour manager now — he used to be out with a few rock bands himself. Like the ones that you would expect to be big partiers. He came on our bus and he said, ‘Man I thought rock n’ roll was rock n’ roll’ [laughs]. ●– – Responding to a seemingly Aldean-inspired question, Lee Brice says it’s a myth that country singers behave better than rock stars or rappers out on the road.

In my heart I have always felt that we are three people: I am who I think I am, I am who you think I am and I am who I really am. The question of how close those three are together will determine how long you survive because people don’t like to be tricked. They don’t like to say “Well I thought he was like this, but now I find out that he’s like that” and I think that’s important for longevity. ●– – Kenny Rogers is at least three people, but he tries to keep them all pretty similar.

If you listen to country radio right now, it rocks. I think Jason [Aldean] is the guy who made that cool. ●– – Wade Jessen, senior chart manager for Billboard.

We’re definitely rockers, but we’re definitely country guys too. I hope we’ll be a trendsetter; it’s always funny to watch people try to do what you do. ●– – Brantley Gilbert is hoping to inspire even more copycats. Lord help us.

Different isn’t always good, but in my case for it to be good this time — as far as an album or a song — I believe it has to be different. The worst thing you could’ve said to me was, “Hey, I just heard the new single and it’s along the same lines as what you always do.” That would make me very depressed. ●– – Brad Paisley thinks it’s the right time to change things up. I thought the right time was about 6 years ago.

“He knew the floor plan to a hundred studios, at least,” McCoy says of Robbins, telling the story of a time the electricity went out, leaving musicians in the dark in the windowless recording room. McCoy recalls Robbins saying, ‘OK, anybody that wants to go to the restroom, I’ll take you there for a dollar.’ ” ●– – Harmonica ace Charlie McCoy on (blind) piano ace Hargus ‘Pig’ Robbins, who was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame – along with Garth Brooks and Connie Smith – this evening.

Pig Robbins and Connie Smith in the Hall of Fame? About stinkin’ time!